Piano duo – Biography

We can’t pinpoint exactly when the Görög Sisters piano duo was born, because the members, Enikőand Noémi, have been playing together ever since they started playing, which is from a very young age. Immediately after their first concert together, they received positive feedback from the audience, quickly followed by accolades by music critics, as well. The Görög Sisters have a seamless cooperation using the language of music, which, on the other hand, perfectly expresses their completely different musical personalities.

Máté Csabai wrote about their musical harmony for the Fidelio Magazine in the August 15, 2016 issue:

“… they are in perfect unison. At times their play is wild and loud, while at other times it is very tender, but it is certainly never superficial. They did not stop short of playing Ravel’s exceptionally complex and demanding piece, the La Valse at the end of their program. There is a tiny hall behind the Cardiology Hospital, where a few dozens of music enthusiasts huddled together, found a safe haven from the rain and listened to the Görög Sisters, who “tore the roof off the hall” with Saint-Saens’ The Dance of Death and Ravel’s ecstatic waltz. If Béla Hamvas were alive, he would write an essay about it, so, I’ll try to make the best of it. ”

The piano duo started developing under the guiding hands of Emőke Sóti Szobonya, then for years they were mentored by Ninoslav Živković. Apart from these professors, the Sisters were influenced by Gabriella Láng, Arbo Valdma, Márta Gulyás, Imre Rohmann, Luis Fernando Pérez, Tami Kanazawa, Yuval Admony, Jacques Rouvier and Aquiles Delle Vigne.

The piano duo won countless awards at various national and international competitions, including the following:

The Görög Sisters performed and shared a stage with the Odeon Youth Orchestra (München), the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra, the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok and the Szeged Symphony Orchestra.

They released their first album in 2015 with the title Let’s Play, containing four-hand and two-piano pieces by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Bartók and Lutosławski. The CD was accompanied by three short videos, presenting three movements of Béla Bartók’s Microcosmos in a completely new light. The videos were produced by the Electe group from Subotica, aimed at music fans and the wider public.

The Görög Sisters Photo by PIPS studio

The Sisters started holding Children’s concerts in 2015 upon the invitation of Győző Lukácsházi. The first joint concert with Lukácsházi, who is a radio-producer, was held at Studio 6 of Bartók Radio. It was at this first session that the Görög Sisters became immediately captivated by the children’s audience, their musical passion and spontaneous reactions. The Sisters believe deeply in the need for promoting children’s musical education and instilling musical artistic values into children starting from a young age, which is in line with Lukácsházi’s views, mirrored in the 20-year’s tradition of the BonBon Matinee. At their concerts the Görög Sisters try to offer their young audience a musical basis that will induce them to become regular concertgoers.

The Görög Sisters are committed to playing and promoting modern four-hand and two-piano pieces. The Senta-born Serbian composer, Aleksandar S. Vujić dedicated the four-hand version of his popular Serbian Kolo to the Görög Sisters piano duo. The composer published an account in 2014, in the April issue of the Muzika Klasika classical music journal about the work’s premier in Belgrade on February 24, 2014:

“Their performance was nothing short of a torrent of sound from the keyboard. Our hearts were beating in our throats. It was a sonic comet that dashed across the musical hall, leaving the audience bathed in light.”

In 2017 the Belgrade-based composer Milica Ilić also dedicated a work of hers to the Görög Sisters, ‘Higher’, her musical play centered around the legend of Daedalus and Icarus. The piece is composed for two pianos, baritone vocals, a smaller narrative choir and an actor. The new musical play was first performed at the Dorćol Platz alternative theater in Belgrade on September 15, 2017, featuring the Görög Sisters. She spoke about the play’s premier in an interview with Nikola Pejčinović given for the Ars Sonora program at the Belgrade Radio on September 18, 2017:

“ I am impressed by the pianists’ musicality and precise technical preparation. The communication between them is unique and they are also in deep harmony with the other participants in the play.”